Carbon Mineral Challenge

The Carbon Mineral Challenge is a citizen science project dedicated to accelerating the discovery of carbon-bearing minerals. The program launched in 2015 with sponsorship from the Deep Carbon Observatory. The project will end after 2019.[1]

Background

Mineralogist Robert Hazen and his colleagues pioneered the concept of mineral evolution to explain how life and geology have intertwined throughout Earth’s multi-billion year past. As part of that research, the group developed a model that combines the locations and distributions of known minerals to predict the number of unknown carbon minerals on Earth. The method is similar to statistical methods used in biology.[2] Hazen and his group predicted that 145 carbon minerals remain undiscovered on Earth.[3]

A paper supporting the research, "Carbon Mineral Ecology," was published by American Mineralogist in 2015, and the Carbon Mineral Challenge was announced in 2015 at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting meeting in San Francisco.[4] Geochemist Daniel Hummer (Southern Illinois University) is the project lead.[5]

Carbon is the focus of the project due to the element's importance to life on Earth and how little is known about it.[6][7]

How the Project Works

To register a new carbon mineral with the project, mineralogists are asked to adhere to the protocol outlined by the International Mineralogical Association Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification. Once a carbon mineral is approved by that body, the team responsible for the mineral's discovery submits their finding via a form on the project's website.[8] As of December 2015 there were 405 known and catalogued carbon minerals.[9]

The project focuses both on new discoveries in the field and analyses of samples in already in storage in museums and other institutions.[10] Six new carbon minerals have been described since the project's launch. One mineral, abellaite, has chemistry that was predicted by the research team.[11]

The mineral analysis by Hazen and his colleagues provides some clues about promising locations to look for new carbon minerals and predicts their chemical makeup[12]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "The carbon mineral challenge: A worldwide hunt for new carbon minerals". Phys.org. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  2. ↑ Wilson, Elizabeth (December 22, 2015). "Worldwide Hunt Begins for Missing Carbon Minerals". Scientific American. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  3. ↑ Deep Carbon Observatory: Announcing the Carbon Mineral Challenge
  4. ↑ AGU Fall Meeting: The Carbon Mineral Challenge: A worldwide hunt for new carbon minerals (Workshop)
  5. ↑ deepcarbon.net
  6. ↑ Ivy Shih (March 9, 2016). "Discovery of carbon on Mercury reveals the planet's dark past". The Conversation. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  7. ↑ Hazen, Robert M.; Jones, Adrian P.; Baross, John A. (eds.). "1". Carbon in Earth (PDF). Reviews in Mineralogy & Geochemistry. ISBN 978-0-939950-90-4. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  8. ↑ Carbon Mineral Challenge: How It Works
  9. ↑ Smithsonian Magazine
  10. ↑ Scientific American
  11. ↑ The Carbon Mineral Challenge
  12. ↑ Sid Perkins (October 4, 2016). "Rock hounds are on the hunt for new carbon minerals". Science News. Science News. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.